Egg Powder, Instant Pounded Yam Flour From IBBU

A hungry man is an angry man, says a popular adage and one can only
imagine what an angry man is capable of doing. There is absolute
need for the world to be food secure. To this end, scientists at Lapai,
Niger State-based Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, IBBU’s
Centre for Applied Sciences & Technology Research: Food Science &
Technology Programme, came up with innovations aimed at preserving
and adding value to agricultural produce. They spoke with Vanguard
Learning at the 6th National Universities Research and Development
Fair held at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka in March. Although
Nigeria produces a lot of food during the farming season, over 50% of
the produce is lost due to lack of proper storage facilities.
Excerpts:

PACKAGED EGG POWDER
"Egg powder is a highly dehydrated egg. They may be produced
by various methods such as spray drying , vacuum drying, or freeze-
drying. We employed the technology of foam-mat drying to
dehydrate freshly purchased eggs. The eggs were washed, left to
dry at room temperature, weighed and then cracked with a kitchen
knife. Dehydrated samples were scrapped off the aluminium trays
and grinded with a grinder (Corona) to obtain fine particle sizes.
The sieved samples were then packaged as powdered whole egg
(WE), powdered egg white (EW) and powdered egg yolk (EY). Egg
powder can become a sustained method of preserving egg
without significant loss of nutrients.

FORTIFIED INSTANT POUNDED YAM FLOUR
Every year, Niger State produces several tons of yams that require
further value-added processing, preservation and packaging; the
researchers conducted research trials to enhance preservativeness
and storage of yam flour.

Instant pounded (poundo) yam flour is made from dehydrated and
grounded (comminuted) yam peels. Traditionally, pounded yam is
made by pounding boiled yam with a pestle in a very big mortar
with concomitant addition of some quantities of water to make it
soft and pliable.

Instant pounded yam flour is made by boiling hot water which is
used to pregelatinize the carbohydrate and then turn it with a
paddle or spoon depending on the size of the yam flour. The
research work has enabled the development of novel yam flour for
instant pounded yam production. It has also produced pounded
yam which the colour and flavour were not adversely affected. The
researchers areDennis Balogu; Cornelius Orishagbemi; Vincent
Balogu, Theophilus Ikegwu and Babatunde Jubril.

Source: Vanguard